Another Week at McWane

We went to McWane THREE times last week. seriously.

On Friday, I took the kids in the morning. Then we met Husband for lunch. That was nice. Except for having to wrangle two kids by myself. Husband and I prefer Man-to-Man versus Zone Defense at places like McWane so we can keep a better eye on the kids. But they did great and it was fun.

On Saturday, we all went instead of going blueberry picking. It was too hot to be out in a field at noon! We tried to get Daughter to ride the zip line (one of the new exhibits) but she didn't want to. Saturday was a fun fill day.

On Sunday, I met Husband and the kids at McWane after Second Sewing Saturday so Husband could take Daughter to her first movie. And an IMax at that! The plan was he'd take her to the 40 minute movie while Son and I played and after the movie we'd all play some more.

I'll admit, I was a little nervous about the movie. 'Born to be Wild' is an inspired story of love, dedication and the remarkable bond between humans and animals. This film documents orphaned orangutans and elephants and the extraordinary people who rescue and raise them - saving endangered species one life at a time. Sounds sweet and heart warming. Nevertheless, I had visions of wild animals doing, well, what wild animals do. Ya know, eating each other and such. I know it's nature and that's what animals have to do to survive, but I avoid watching things like that whenever possible and I sure didn't want to explain it to my 3.5 year old any time soon. Luckily, (for me) Husband said there wasn't any of that. He did say at the very beginning, there was a baby elephant nudging its dead mother elephant to wake up. That would have made me cry, but Husband said Daughter didn't even mention it.

She loved it! We met in the lobby after the movie and she RAN to me and said, "Mommy, I had a little popcorn and coke. And I saw baby elephants and baby 'or-nang-e-tangs' and so much other stuff. It was so fun. I loved it." (sigh) happiness.

Husband said that because of the IMax, when the screen moved with that "moving" feeling she would whisper, "Daddy, we're flying."

I love that she had a great time. I love that Husband got to share that with her. He's been talking about her "first movie" for years now.

Also on Sunday after the movie, Daughter decided she wanted to try the zip-line. And try she did. She went down it about 8 times. And of course I didn't have the camera! She was so fearless and brave and excited. I love that about her. Don't get me wrong, there are things she's scared of. But when she's fearless, it's exhilarating to me.

A shot of Husband and the kids playing soccer. It's one of the HAVE to do things for us.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday's tickets.

Because, Friday's tickets involve breaking down adult admission versus child admission because there were only 3 of us, I'm taking the lazy way out and saying: We have MORE THAN GOTTEN OUR MONEY'S WORTH out of our $90 membership! (Heck, it paid for itself in these 3 trips)

Wordless Wednesday: Clown Town

June Second Sewing Saturday

This month, JSS (her post actually shows us modeling our purses) and I finished our pleated purses.

I was really excited to get it finished and it was the first time I ever used an X-acto knife. win, win.

I now know how to iron in fusible interfacing, make pleats, sew and cut the bottom corners to give bags volume, and sew in straps. Plus, I may or may not be a better fabric cutter and pattern reader than I was before I started. And, well, I have a cute new purse.

the outside

the inside with some of my junk to give it a little shape

I really like this bag. It's a great size and pretty easy to make. (I only admitted it was easy after I said it was hard and JSS asked what was hard about it and I couldn't think of anything substantial) It was a process figuring out what the pattern meant, but I like it. I'm planning on making at least one more for my mom. Maybe more. we'll see.

a sandbox to sanity

When I/we was/were a kid/kids (wow) my dad built us a sandbox. It was ridiculously big, like 10x10. I loved it. lots of fun memories playing in the sandbox.

Husband and I thought about building one for Son's birthday in April. But we never did. Recently, the kids were at my parent's house, Daughter discovered the remnants of the old sandbox in the back yard. And by that I mean - dirt sand. We let her play and play and play. The last time they were there, Mom even brought out old muffin tins and gardening shovels for her to play with and starting plotting how she could get this girl a real sandbox with real sand and not decades old dirt sand.

So, Mom bought two crabs (bigger than the turtles and much better for two kids size wise than the turtle) one for her house and one for ours. She delivered it on a Friday and we filled it up on a Saturday. And the kids have played in it every day since. About a month now.

The first time. We had to dig the beach sand toys out of the laundry room.

seriously, this never gets old for them.

Son said, "hurray sand!"

But I have not told you the best part of the sandbox yet. This is the first time in the history of my kids, that they don't bother me when we go outside. Usually, it's "catch this ball, Mommy," or "kick the ball to me, Mommy," or "look at this flower, Mommy," or "Mommy, I have the biggest rock," or "ride me on your back, Mommy," or "let's play in the tent, Mommy," or "chase me, Mommy."

I love my kids and I'm glad I get to spend every day with them, but BOY it is exhausting. When you're with a 2 year old and a 3 and a half year old from 8:30am to 7pm 5 days a week, it wears on you.

But now, thanks to this glorious, magnificent sandbox, I can bring my book or my ipod and sit in my lounge chair and observe. It truly is such an amazing break. Until someone throws sand and we have to go in the house!

Thank you, sandbox, for your magical powers of independent play.

All Lyrics Aside, She Loves her Brother

Daughter has this song that she sings about Son in the morning. Most mornings. When she wakes up grumpy and cheery sunny Son wants to cuddle and play and interact, she sings this song. I have no idea where it came from, the melody is completely foreign to me so she might have made it up. We try not to make a big deal about it, because she only does it when she's grumpy and we always talk to her about how "being mad at" her brother isn't very nice. And she does play well and love him so so so much of the time.

Anyway, these are the lyrics:

When the sun is up

that's why/when I mad at Finny

When the sun is down

that's why/when I happy at Finny

(she interchanges the why and when often) sometimes she even does motions. both of these videos are pretty hilarious.

Food Day Friday: Our Strawberries

So we had 2 big buckets of strawberries ... what to do, what to do?

It just so happens that Husband's favorite jam is strawberry. It is also a nice coincidence that Husband has been wanting to make a strawberry pie for awhile. BINGO. I made the jam, Husband made the pie and the four of us devoured the remaining strawberries before the pie even had time to cool.

Husband getting to work, while I ran to the store for jar lids and pectin.

My first ever batch of strawberry jam.

I've been wanting to try jamming for awhile. Mandy has been making jam for years and so far she's shared a strawberry jar and blueberry jar with us. And both jars have just left me wanting more and more and more. Easy and fun, Mandy promises. And she's right. Especially because Husband chipped in and we worked together.

(Mandy, I appreciate that all my jars are the same height but I wish I had two more jars)

close up of my label. high class.

I used a recipe I found on pickyourown.org and it WAS really easy.

strawberries, sugar and pectin. (they have more than just that recipe, including sugarless options)

This was the prize of the day. I was going through all my jars to take an inventory of what I had and how many lids I needed to buy for tomato canning later this season. And I found this jar. It was my Nanny's. And on the bottom of the jar, a little reminder label she wrote in a handwriting that is so familiar to me. "will not seal" Instead of crying, I laughed. a lot. Then I called my mom and told her. She laughed too. We both figured that this was probably the jar she always used as her "first jar" that went straight to the fridge. sweet memories. I miss her.

Husband's strawberry pie. fab-u-lous.

He used his typical flour/butter crust and for the filling he used a recipe of The Neely's on Food Network. It's fabulous. But we both agreed next time it should be a graham cracker crust.

We've had a couple of breakfasts of homemade biscuits and strawberry jam (and turkey bacon) and it really is so good. And I love the BRIGHT VIBRANT red.

Back to McWane

We had a super long visit to McWane Sunday, thanks to the new exhibits that opened the day before. Most of the new things were up on the third floor, so we started there.

First we stopped at the Imagination Playground. The kids built and built. (and played in that big fort that two tween girls were just finishing up when we arrived)

They helped carry the pieces and I put it together. around and around and around.

While the kids were building, Husband wandered around to check out the new stuff and got to ride the zip-line. Later, neither kid wanted to ride it and I had on a skirt.

Next, we went to the Maze.

Daughter, figuring it out

Son on one of the Play Well exhibits. His exercise was a "silly dance"

By far the biggest hit of the day: The Energy Slide is open (FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER) The minimum height is 36 inches tall. Luckily, both kids were tall enough. They've both been eyeing the slide that starts on the 3rd level and ends on the second since April.

One of Daughter's 12 trips down

One of Son's 3 trips down

MY favorite new exhibit is the Bubble Room. It's on the 1st Level where the fix-it garage used to be (hated to see that go, because Daughter loved playing with the tools)

Son making bubbles

Husband and Daughter blowing on opposite sides on a bubble

proud of my bubble making skills.

Husband, the bubble maker

Daughter was so proud of her bubbles

The kids love the Just Mice Size Exhibit and that's usually where they spend most of their time. Sunday was no exception. And I was pretty happy to see that all the puzzles, dress up clothes, puppets, blocks and the grocery store (sponsored by Publix) was all moved into one of the classrooms in that exhibit.

Daughter paying for her vegetables.

(btw, Daughter was super stoked that the tickets were pink)

four more tickets (we're up to a total of 12)

And the ticket roundup:

total paid for our membership: $90

price we would have paid for Sunday's trip: $42

total for 12 tickets if we'd paid full price: $126

price per 12 tickets (divided by 90): $7.50

Wordless Wednesday: He is BANNED from rope swings